


A Dance for Abel

by inkabelle_designs



Category: Nußknacker und Mausekönig | Nutcracker and the Mouse King - E. T. A. Hoffmann
Genre: Other, Prince Sebastian, abel smirnoff - Freeform, abel the nutcracker - Freeform, alexandre the nutcracker - Freeform, auran dulce - Freeform, auran the nutcracker - Freeform, daemon the ghost nutcracker - Freeform, noel the nutcracker - Freeform, nutcracketeers - Freeform, sebastian the nutcracker - Freeform, yuri the nutcracker - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-25
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2019-04-07 19:35:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14088150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkabelle_designs/pseuds/inkabelle_designs
Summary: While taking a break in the Owlbrook Library, the Nutcracketeers enjoy a pleasant day of reading. But as you would expect, things never stay peaceful for this group of toys, and Abel and Auran come across a treasure that may just change their lives.Note: This work features characters developed by multiple friends of mine who are all fans of the story of The Nutcracker. I do not own any of these characters with the exception of Auran Dulce. The other creators shall be credited in the notes for this story.





	A Dance for Abel

**Author's Note:**

> In case you aren't familiar with us, there's a small niche of people hanging around the interwebs known as the Nutcracketeers. We're a spirited bunch that are big fans of the many renditions of the story of the Nutcracker Ballet, and there have been quite a few fan adaptations and alternative nutcracker stories that have come into existence because of us. I first found out about these folks through a lovely artist known as ShinyZango, who can be found here http://shinyzango.tumblr.com/ Thanks to her phenomenal work on her own adaptation, I've been involved with these nutty shenanigans since the beginning of this year, as a voice actress for her version of Clara as well as creating my own nutcracker story with Auran, and there are no regrets about any of this. 
> 
> This piece is not canonical to any of the work concerning the nutcracketeers, this is just me playing around. Check the notes at the bottom to see the lovely people behind these characters, as their work is phenomenal and they deserve your love and support. I've attached links to their tumblr pages for your convenience.

The Owlbrook Library was a peaceful little nook, hidden away from the view of any mice. That made it the perfect hiding place, and just as importantly, a relaxing getaway for the nutcracketeers. Daemon had suggested they take some time to do a bit of reading to calm some of the more rambunctious shenanigans some of the cracketeers usually pursued, and for the most part, it had worked. And so, the diverse group of nutcrackers were all cozy and content in the corners of the book haven, and in some cases, gaining a meaningful learning opportunity.

    Auran had taken this time to study up on some dance techniques, as he had never actually read material for ballet before, only mimicked performers he’d met. It was an excellent read. Abel in the meantime had found a wonderful book on old Russian folk songs, quietly humming under his breath with each turn of the page. While most of the cracketeers had picked long enough books to keep them occupied, Abel and Auran found themselves scouring the shelves again for something new. Abel placed his song book back where it belonged, and that’s when another caught his eye. It had a royal blue cover with golden embossing for the lettering. It was slightly dusty, so he gave a firm breath to try and clean it off, which revealed the title, “Spell Steps.” Abel was curious. He leafed his oversized fingers through the pages as gently as he could. Upon closer inspection, he recognized that it was written in Russian, with many illustrations alongside the words.

    He was stopped dead in his tracks when a title caught his attention. He paused for a moment and started reading the page. The farther he went, the wider his eyes got. This simply couldn’t be, the marvelous things this book spoke of, they sounded unreal, impossible! He turned to Auran, who was standing on a stepstool, reaching for a book on Celtic trees, and tugged on the fleece of his boots to get his attention. The shorter nutcracker turned to face him as he got down the stepstool.

             “Hey, what’s up Abel?”

             “Auran, you need to see this book. It looks a lot like the type of magic you’ve been using.”

             Auran’s eyes widened. While admittedly spells based in dance were part of his homeland, they weren’t very common to come across. He’d been lucky to have learned any initially when the smith had first fixed his legs, as such knowledge was usually lost to time. He turned to look in both directions before gesturing to Abel to follow him.

             “Let’s head to the back room. We need to inspect this closer without being disturbed.”

             The two blue boys headed to the back of the library in one of its ‘study rooms.’ Closing the door behind them, they laid the book out on the table. Auran took off his hat and set it down, tying his hair back with a rubber band from his satchel. He looked over the book, confused by what he was witnessing.

             “This is insane. What’s something like this doing in here? In the right hands, this could be so powerful. I’ve never seen such intricate footwork used for magic.”

             “You’re telling me. I started reading the first few paragraphs of this spell, I can’t believe our luck! This might be the key to helping our cursed friends!” Abel said excitedly.

             Auran raised an eyebrow. “You’re gonna have to walk me through this, we both know I can’t understand Russian.”

             Abel nodded and pointed to the book, guiding Auran through the rough translation of the words. He gestured a lot with his hands to help illustrate what he was talking about.

             “This spell here is titled the ‘Spell of Humanity.’ The book says this was once used by the ancient enchantresses to restore the forms of men who were ‘taken from their true nature.’” He went on to point down the page. “It says here that there was a time were curses were strewn about the land by horrible warlocks to disable entire armies, and this spell was the method used to reverse them.” He looked down at Auran, his eyes shining. “Think of what this could mean. Sebastian would be ecstatic to get his hands on something like this, he’d be freed! And I’m sure the others would want to investigate it too. Auran, we have to try this, imagine how much better the lives of our fellow nutcrackers would be if they could just be themselves!”

             Abel had stars in his eyes, the prospect of this enchantment fascinated him, but Auran was skeptical.

             “Hang on a second, we have to think of the consequences here. There’s a known way to break most of their curses, if we tamper with it, it could just make things more difficult down the line. I-I’d rather not risk putting them in a place that we can’t get them out of.”

             Abel hung his head low for a moment. “Maybe most of them do, but not Seb…He believes it’s the same as the rest, ‘kill the mouse king’ and be done with it, but we’ve never had it confirmed. I’d rather no one be murdered, even if the king is monstrous. I just…I worry for him Auran. He’s been so miserable, more miserable than they say he was as a human. I just want to help my friend be happy again. Maybe he’d stop being so mean towards nutcrackers now that he’s spent some time as one.”

             Auran reached up and put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “I understand where you’re coming from. You’d do anything to care for your friends, I’d be a liar if I said I wouldn’t do the same for Marie. I’m willing to see if this is something we could do for Sebastian, but we have to look through all of the instructions first.”

             He looked closer at the book and sighed, pointing to a symbol of red skulls and crossbones.

             “Have you read this part yet? That looks like the piece that’ll screw us over.”

             Abel cocked his head to the side and started translating the page. “It doesn’t look too bad, just a warning label. ‘To all who seek to cast this enchantment, be cautious. For as the original casters learned, this cannot be permanent without the proper solution. If the included mixture is applied within twenty-four hours of the casting, the effects shall remain. If not, the subject shall be returned to the way they were, generally bedridden for about a day and a half.’ Hmm…” Abel looked to the page next to the spell. “Looks like there’s a recipe here, looks like the ingredients for…a Black Russian cocktail?”

             Auran looked perplexed. “Seriously? The permanence potion is alcohol? Who the heck writes this stuff?” He shook his head, scanning over the imagery of how to do the steps. “Some of these look a little complicated, but it’s nothing I couldn’t handle. The real trouble would be getting Sebastian to dance with me, since it’s meant for partners. My guess is the enchantresses who originally cast this thought it would be soothing, to treat the afflicted as partners rather than men who were cursed, that’s the only reason that justifies it.”

             Abel read through the passage again, stroking his chin in thought. “Alright, it says this should be as simple as just doing the dance with aurora dust present. Maybe we should try it without any, just to see if you can do it.”

             Auran placed a hand on his hip and smirked. “Excuse you, there isn’t a dance out there that I can’t do. The question is, can you keep up?”

             “Wait, what? But I’m not-”

             “Come on Abel, you know Seb would get too impatient to practice with me, and besides, the partner doesn’t have to do much. Just follow my lead, okay?” Auran held his hand out to Abel, his grin full of mischief and wonder.

             Abel nodded, a similar childish joy entering his system. “Alright, let’s give it a try, for Sebastian.”

             And so, for about half an hour, they bumbled around, trying to master the steps involved. There was a lot of tripping and falling over, but they laughed. Trying to work out the pieces of the enchantment was a fun and rewarding challenge, and through it, both gained something. Auran was grateful to Abel for showing him new ways of getting his limbs in certain positions, and Abel was certainly excited to have some terms to associate with the steps. They bounced off each other very well. The noise from their endeavor attracted some of the other cracketeers to their hiding spot. Yuri and Noel stood in the doorway, struggling not to snicker at the ridiculous scene before them. Alexandre was a few paces away, at the ready with his equipment, anxious about the possibility of them injuring themselves. And as expected, Daemon watched over the whole scene from a distance, the fatherly figure that he was, with muted curiosity.

             Abel was smiling ear to ear. With another graceful twirl, they were in the middle of their dance, with Abel held in Auran’s dip. Everything was going so well, just a few more steps and they’d have executed it perfectly. Another spin, a slide to the side, and a leap would do it. But as Auran went to the slide phase, he tripped, banging the backs of his heels as he and Abel went crashing down in a heap. He sighed, looking down sadly.

             “This is never going to work, I just can’t get that transition right,” he said as he looked up at Abel.

             “Hey, don’t give up Auran! We’re so close, I know we can make this happen!” The hearty Russian hopped to his feet and reached a hand out to the dancer. “Our bodies weren’t built for movement like this, but you’ve still proven that you can beat the odds. Don’t let one more trip up bring you down, okay? We are strong like the pine trees!”

             Auran smiled sheepishly as he took Abel’s hand to pull himself up. “You’re right. Alright, let’s give it one more try, we’ll get this down.”

             They started up one more time to try and do it to completion. However, there was one detail they failed to notice. In their last fall, Auran’s heel compartments had been damaged. Now, had this been any normal dance, this wouldn’t have been a problem, but this was a dance that was supposed to unleash a spell. With nothing to hold his aurora dust back, it was subtly leaking from the damaged panels whilst they did their dance. They were doing so well this time too, both perfectly in sync with each other and accurate to the instructions. They were just about to get to the ending when Sebastian happened upon their group.

             “What are you hunks of wood up to?” he yelled.

             Auran was caught off guard upon finishing the last step and fell over again. He noticed his vision was edged with lavender.  _But that wasn’t supposed to happen unless-_ He looked down to his legs in a panic.

             “Guys, seal the door, now!”

             Noel and Yuri looked to him in confusion, but before anyone could react, it was too late. The purple aurora dust was all over the place, and upon having completed the dance, it was ready to take effect. But the question was, how? Auran had been dancing with Abel this whole time, who wasn’t afflicted with anything, how would the magic know what it was targeting? He didn’t have to wait long for an answer.

             The dust rose up and attacked the air within the entire area, lighting up like a Christmas tree. Bursts of sparkles and lavender went everywhere, clogging up the systems of everyone in the room. Within moments, there was a coughing fit coming from every nutcracker present, most forced to the floor in an unforeseen agony. Auran looked horrified, but soon even he was forced into submission, his own magic turned against him. He looked to Abel, who was struggling while holding onto the side of a desk, his breathing turned sharp. It occurred to Auran in that moment that he’d never consciously thought about breathing, in fact, none of the native-born nutcrackers did. It was mostly their cursed friends who would hyperventilate when panicked. But in that moment, Auran felt bizarre, like suddenly, he had lungs that could be harmed.

             Abel keeled over, coughing violently, his chest heaving. He held his torso in agony, biting his lip, as if that would help. But that’s when he noticed, there was something in his mouth, something squishy and covered in tiny bumps. He let a few more coughs out before reaching a finger in to touch it. Whatever was in there was attached! But that couldn’t be right, could it? Then he looked to his hand. Four fingers and a thumb, nowhere near as large as it usually was, delicate and gloved instead of just painted white. He had tasted the fabric, a sensation he wasn’t used to, it was weird in texture. He trembled as he carefully took the glove off, not noticing that the dust had dissipated. Underneath was skin, very soft skin and well-groomed nails, with small wrinkles to indicate the knuckles and bends. Abel placed his hand upon his cheek. The texture, it was so soft, and the bits of hair that fell out of place over his face, they too were soft. His gorgeous green eyes widened, the wonder mixing in with the panic as he realized what had happened. He jumped to his feet and ran to find the closest reflective surface.

             The best he could find was Daemon’s chest plate. With the tall nutcracker unconscious on the ground, Abel bent over and got a good look at himself. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The spell had changed him, he was human! His once painted freckles were real marks upon his face, and they popped as he beamed. This was incredible, something the boy had only dreamed of. He looked himself over. His clothing was just paint over wood before, but now he sported a real blue coat with golden buttons, and it was so comfortable and warm, he almost felt he could sleep in it. He gave it a sniff, recognizing his increased sense of smell. It was so fresh, as though it had just finished being washed and dried. He was in a personal heaven. For so long he had wondered what these sensations felt like, and now he knew. He was so happy, he felt his heart might burst.

             With a groan from the ghost warrior before him, Abel snapped out of his fantasies and offered the elder a hand. Upon pulling him up, Abel noticed the lines in Daemon’s jaw were missing. In fact, there were a few things about his structure that didn’t feel right.

             Back with the book, Auran slowly rose to his feet, rubbing his head as though he had a terrible migraine. And that’s when he felt some of his stray locks brush against his cheek. His heart nearly stopped. He looked to his smaller hands and tugged on the jacket that had reformed.

             “Dammit! No, this is not good!” he yelled. The dancer held onto the wall for dear life, desperate to calm himself down. After the last time he’d been cursed to be human, he was terrified of it ever happening again. It was an awful experience, he’d been unable to defend his Marie, never had he felt so weak. This brought all those horrible feelings right back to the forefront of his mind, and it was not an enjoyable time.

    Beside him, Noel and Yuri had slowly stood up from where they had fallen. Noel felt a throbbing pain in his head and clutched it tightly. He too came to the realization as to what had happened. There was a lot of angry screaming in German after that. Yuri held his stomach as though it ached, which it probably did. After all, during this period of shenanigans, he’d been sipping from a bottle of maple syrup as though it were a flask, something that was bound to make a human stomach sick.

    And even for as far away as Alexandre and Daemon were, they didn’t escape the spell’s effects either. Daemon was out of it, something the cracketeers weren’t used to seeing from him, while Alexandre ran to find the nearest lavatory, a throbbing pain coming from his bandaged eye. But then what of their interruption? Sebastian had toppled over into a comfy chair, passed out with his limbs sprawled. His face was so peaceful when he was asleep, almost made a fella forget that he was such a jerk on the regular. But even so, that was indeed his face, tender lips and gently eyebrows, all very vulnerable, very human. When he would wake up later, it would be quite the surprise to deal with.

    Abel ran over to Auran to calm him down, squeezing his hands in worry. “Hey, hey, breathe Auran, you gotta snap out of this. Everything is fine, no one is dying, just a little pain here and there. We’re gonna be okay, alright?”

    Auran nodded, swallowed the saliva in his mouth and silently moved towards the book.

    “I just don’t understand; how did this happen? I get that my panels got trashed by accident, but what could’ve caused us all to be changed like this?” he asked, baffled by what had occurred.

    Abel shrugged. “Perhaps when Sebastian came in, the spell read his curse as being the affliction. From there it may’ve decided that the rest of us nutcrackers were in the same boat and went haywire.”

    Auran shook his head and sighed. “That’s as good a guess as any. It’d explain why I feel so drained. That dust takes a lot out of me, it’s a part of my nutcracker enchantment and saps at it. To have cast a spell with such a wide radius on…let’s see, how many? Seven of us? That’s a lot more than I can handle. I need a nap…” His eyelids drooped as he held onto the table, struggling to stand up. Abel carefully guided him over to a comfy chair.

    “Hey, it’s all good. You take a rest, leave the others to me. I’ll get them to stop panicking by the time you’ve finished napping, then we can figure this out.”

    Auran nodded before letting his eyes shut themselves. He quickly drifted into a deep sleep, drained from the magical mishap. Abel went forward to try and get his once fellow nutcrackers to relax, starting with Noel’s frantic yelling. Though there was a small part of him on the inside that wasn’t unhappy with all of this. If anything, he may have to investigate where to find some vodka.

**Author's Note:**

> Normally I'm not one to write work that includes other people's characters, simply because it can get very messy, but I decided to step out of my comfort zone for the sake of putting this together as a gift for my favorite hell spawn Freckle. Happy Birthday Freckle, congrats on making it around the sun one more time! 
> 
> Auran Dulce belongs to me, https://inkabelledesigns.tumblr.com/  
> Abel Smirnoff and Sebastianbelongs to http://freckleocalypse.tumblr.com/  
> (Her artwork is amazing and super sweet, love her colors so much!)  
> Noel belongs to https://youronlydrpepper.tumblr.com/  
> (If you want a cute art style with angst to spare, check her out, she delivers.)  
> Yuri belongs to https://ahjones94.tumblr.com/  
> (This guy is also a fellow voice actor, he's usually working with me as Hans.)  
> Alexandre belongs to http://umiartashi.tumblr.com/  
> (Umi knows how to do guys with fabulous hair, seriously, look at that fabulous hair on Alex!)  
> Daemon belongs to http://darknesslioness.tumblr.com/ (Also found at https://archiveofourown.org/users/LionessGamer/pseuds/LionessGamer)  
> (Seriously go read her stories, she's phenomenal, all of these folks are.)


End file.
